Worcester school budget gets 3.1 percent increase

Friday

Jun 21, 2013 at 6:00 AM

By Jacqueline Reis TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

The School Committee, its usual divided self, passed its annual budget on a 4-2 vote Thursday night.

The $348,468,326 budget is approximately 3.1 percent higher than the current year’s $337,941,850 and includes an additional $255,000 the city allocated from anticipated state reimbursement for the transportation of homeless students.

That move, coupled with another $173,000 transfer from the city, should bring city school spending to approximately what the state requires.

The committee followed Superintendent Melinda J. Boone’s recommendation to spend the new money on an elementary school teacher, nine elementary school tutors and a $10,000 addition to the school safety budget.

The 4-2 vote on the budget overall came when two members, Brian A. O’Connell and Donna M. Colorio, said they felt more should be done to put more money in classrooms and less elsewhere. The ultimate 4-2 vote came after two other 4-2 votes: one against cutting $300,000 from administration, a move Mr. O’Connell said could be accomplished by assigning two existing central administrators to open principal positions; and one against cutting $10,000 from the legal budget, which is already budgeted at almost $74,000 less than the district spent this year.

Just before the vote on the final budget, Mr. O’Connell said that he would not support it, because it did not align with his priorities. He said his vote was not a reflection of the work of the people who put the budget together.

Mayor Joseph M. Petty, chairman of the School Committee, quietly noted that it could also be “a reflection on the majority of the School Committee.”

The four in favor of the budget were Jack L. Foley, John F. Monfredo, Tracy O’Connell Novick and Mr. Petty. Dianna L. Biancheria was not present because of a family emergency.

The committee managed unanimity on several recognitions Thursday night, including Worcester Teacher of the Year Bruce J. O’Connell, lead English language arts teacher at the Gerald Creamer Center, an alternative school. Mr. O’Connell, who has been teaching for 15 years, graduated from Burncoat High School and thanked his teachers there and at Burncoat Middle and Burncoat Street Preparatory schools, as well as his wife, Trisha, his 7-year-old daughter, Katelyn and 3-year-old son, Matthew.

The two finalists for teacher of the year were Theresa Leland-Sullivan, English department head at Worcester Technical High School, and Emily Kay, a third-grade teacher at Tatnuck Magnet School.

The nurse of the year is Joan Sherman, who has worked at 743-student Quinsigamond Elementary for 12 years, 11 of them by herself.

Committee members said farewell to Sergio M. Paez, the district’s manager of English language learner programs and supplemental support services, who is leaving to become superintendent of the Holyoke public schools. His replacement has yet to be named.